6 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain • 1 night
The first hike on our California trip last week for our birthdays. We decided to break up the drive to Yosemite by stopping off for a detour to Lassen Volcanic National Park. After a stop @ Manzanita Lake near the entrance and a quick peruse of the information boards and visitors center, we settled on a relatively easy Kings Creek falls hike. Lassen has few creeks, though this one has a nice hike along part of it's length. The hike starts down along the small creek as it flows silently through a lovely meadow. Some deer were munching on the small flowers and hardly noticed us as we walked by. There were some very large trees along the way. Doug firs and larch trees, along with some other unidentified conifers make up the tree cover. Sparse in places, rocky terrain, reminiscent of the Timberline trail near Cairn Basin on Mt. Hood's southwestern flank. After the meadows, the trail drops sharply down some rocky "steps". Part of the trail was closed near these cascades, no doubt b/c of some washed out sections. The horse trail was the open option which detours away from the canyon and around to the lower section which takes you to the top of the named falls. This 30' tall cascade was flowing nicely. We decided to turn the hike into a loop by hiking back along Bench Lake which is drying up quickly. The trail returns along the spine of a ridge, all uphill, to the deer meadow and a bridged crossing of lovely Kings Creek and back to the car.
